Jacob A. Wagner, PhD, Associate Professor of Urban Planning & Design, and co-founder of the UMKC Center for Neighborhoods (CFN). Jacob A. Wagner was born and raised in the Kansas City area. He returned to Kansas City to help build the Urban Planning and Design Program at UMKC in the summer of 2005. The same year, in August, Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. Wagner worked over the next three years to support the recovery of the City of New Orleans with the Urban Conservancy and the Friends of the Lafitte Greenway. In 2007, he was invited by Marlon Hammons to develop a Neighborhood Action Plan with the Washington Wheatley Neighborhood Association. In 2015, Dr. Wagner worked with Senator Curls to establish the Center for Neighborhoods (CFN) as a research and outreach center in the UMKC Urban Planning & Design Program. CFN provides neighborhood leadership development, advocacy planning, and capacity building for neighborhood leaders in the Kansas City region. CFN has served hundreds of leaders, advocates and organizations since 2016. He has worked with Ms. Kathryn Persley of Dunbar for the past five years to helped stabilize the area, and to plan for the future of the historic neighborhood.